The conference didn’t start until 11a.m. on Sunday which gave me and Katrina a bit of time to laze around, pack, and find a coffee haus with wireless. We wandered around our neighborhood until we found a Tully’s Coffee shop. I had a lovely smoothie and a marble pound cake for breakfast. I also enjoyed having some wireless to catch up with my emails and random other postings.
Then we headed back to the First Unitarian Universalist Centre for the day’s proceedings. Unlike Saturday’s numerous sessions which are done in blocks, Sunday’s sessions were all done in one big room so we could all stay together. I think having the days varied in this way is great, so conference attendees don’t feel like they lose out on all the fun for both days.
Mike Hernandez, the “greatest oracle in the world”, gave a fun presentation on various ways of seeing the cards and figuring out what they mean. He compared tarot to any other language, like French. And gave pros and cons of having beginners start with books or start with intuition. I loved that he included the idea of using a thesaurus to find similar meanings from pre-existing keywords. Very innovative.
Mary Greer, of 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card (and other books) fame, spoke next about tarot and our birthcards and how the personalities fit in our daily lives. we were given many homework assignments to try out and she also gave us ways of using the idea of birth cards in with relating to others and the world around me. This got me thinking and I will expand upon this in future posts.
After a small break, Thalassa introduced the crowd to the panelists who would be doing a round robin talk on Tarot Mythbusting. This included Marcus Katz, Leisa RaFalo, Rachael Pollack, Dan Pelletier, and Emily Carding. Each one took on a myth and proceeded to bust the myth, allowing audience input to help bust or discuss the topic. Dan offered up a great magic show that left many of us laughing and dazzled by the brilliance. It left others, like Emily, asking “WTF just happened.” Finally, Emily Carding ended the panel presentation, and BATS, with a wonderful interpretive dance of tarot’s beginnings from Atlantis to Egypt.
I then spent the remaining time I had connecting with many other people, swapping business cards and wishing travelers well wishes for their trips back home. We had dinner at Tommy’s Joynt where Katrina treated me to beef BBQ, green beans, and Raspberry Cider. More lovely discussions ensued and we felt more grounded after the good earthly food. I spent some time thinking about how much I love Temporary Autonomous Zones where time flows differently and the world just seems to change for whatever event. The bonds I made with the people at BATS felt like we had always been friends and knew each other for a lot longer than just the two days.
I left San Francisco, and California, looking forward to reconnecting with my new friends, and building up new classes and ideas for the tarot community. I’m looking forward to what next year’s BATS will bring. Long live BATS!
